


Alteration

by justbygrace



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Multiple Universes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-02-04
Packaged: 2018-09-22 01:35:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9576041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justbygrace/pseuds/justbygrace
Summary: Alternate Title: Five Ways In Which Rose Tyler Could Have Met the Doctor and the One Way She Did."Love is not love when it alters when it alteration finds." ~William Shakespeare





	

I

It was April of 1912 when the RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton, bound for America. Among the passengers was one John Smith, traveling alone and determined that in America he would find the opportunity to prove himself and not always be relegated to the lower class. Also on board was Rose Tyler, titled daughter, extremely irritated at her parents for making the move across the Atlantic and forcing their daughter to accompany them. 

They met on the first night and it was fate or the starry sky or the fact that John was snooping around the upper levels and Rose decided to cover for the most handsome man she'd ever laid eyes on. It was a whirlwind romance, exciting in all the ways that a forbidden love is - sneaking away to be together, kissing in secret, laughing in delight when they were almost caught. They were young and happy and it all came crashing down on the night of the 14th when tragedy inevitably struck. Over a thousand lives were lost that night and the young lovers were hardly a blip in the history books, but for one brief moment, they shone brighter than the sun.

II

It was storming the night they dragged Rose Tyler into the court and tossed her on the floor before the King. Her peasant clothes were soaked and torn, the dangers of the night clearly to be read in her bearing. The King stared down at her as her list of crimes was read out, lips pursed and considering. She expected no mercy and neither did the court and so when the King announced that she was to be pardoned there was a vast intake of breath. There was a condition of course - she was to remain at the Palace. The court chuckled behind their hands, they knew what this was about.

A year later no one was chuckling. It hadn't taken long before everyone realized Rose being there hadn't been to service anyone, King or otherwise, and she was the most beloved person in the Palace. Her songs filled the dreary rooms, her laugh brightened the staid meetings, her hand brought forth flowers and healing and love to all they touched. The young King was thoroughly smitten but Rose was oblivious and nothing was done until the day the King was brought back from a hunt, hunched over and bleeding. She worked tirelessly for days on end and when at last he awoke, everyone knew it wasn't the healers responsibility - it was hers. It wasn't very many months later when the King announced his engagement to the young woman who was no longer a peasant and the day they wed, the rooms rang with the court's cheers.

III

The Bad Wolf was making its way around the coast of Gallifrey under cover of darkness, Rose Tyler at the helm when the lookout informed her there was a man clinging to a bit of driftwood in the ocean. She gave the all clear for them to pull him onboard but wasn't able to personally check on him until the next morning. By then the man was awake with little memory of how he had ended up in the ocean, but with the distinctive genes of a Gallifreyan. Whispers spread among her crew, but Rose cracked down on them - no matter what his people may have done, she wasn't in the habit of kidnapping folks. However she couldn't afford to change course now - she had business in Torchwood. She would deal with the problem of the man they were calling John later.

By the time the Bad Wolf and her captain finished their business in Torchwood with its intrepid Captain, it was a well-known fact that Rose couldn't stand their Gallifreyan passenger. He was constantly underfoot, sticking his nose in everything, and causing trouble with his desire to tinker and be involved in everything. And there was no place he'd rather be than wherever Rose was, leaning over her shoulder and offering suggestions. The return to Gallifrey couldn't come fast enough for Rose, only when they arrived in Gallifreyan waters it was to the sight of burning vessels and the smoking embers of their once great cities. The Dalek Empire had retaliated and Gallifrey was no more. John was quiet, subdued, and Rose hardly left his side as they sorted through what was left; the Bad Wolf's crew burying all they could. Afterwards John murmured something about going off on his own and Rose rolled her eyes, grabbing his hand and tugging him back to the ship. He was stuck with her now and she was pretty okay with that.

IV

It was a well known fact that John Smith - The Doctor as he was usually known - had chosen Rose Tyler to marry because it would be the union of the two biggest families in the city and had the potential to bring about peace. He was many years her senior with a reputation for being harsh and uncommunicative, his orders sharp and his justice swift. She was the belle of the city, loved by all who met her and a ray of sunshine in the dark underworld. There were many who said that this union, albeit a good political move, was going to ruin poor Rose.

It wasn't many months after their well-attended union that rumors spread that the Doctor smiled now and there were flowers brightening up the edges of the rooms and that the restoration of several local parks was all the Doctor's doing. He would have disagreed with that sentiment - it wasn't his doing at all, it was the golden-haired woman who stood beside him and held his hand. The kills became humane, the prisoners soon learned to ask to speak to her, and negotiations went faster if the Doctor brought along his Rose. They ran the city behind closed doors, together, and ultimately brought about peace such as London hadn't seen in years.

V

It was a balmy night and John Smith was off for a drink with his best friend Jack. They had no plans, no worries, and no attachments - at least, John didn't. They stopped at a new club that night, one with signs advertising a singer with the voice of an angel. They had hardly gotten their drinks and seats when the lights lowered, the curtains parted, and the most beautiful woman John had ever seen emerged. Her voice was angelic, but it reminded John of a wolf - a howl he couldn't help getting lost in, one that stirred his blood and echoed in his veins. When Jack made a comment about her figure, John punched him in the face and went to wait backstage to catch another glimpse of her.

John was there the next night and the next and every night she performed. Jack teased him about it, but John didn't care - he had found the only religion he needed right there on the smoky stage. Occasionally he thought about talking to her, but he was a broke writer with nothing to offer someone such as Rose (he'd learned her name by accident and it kept him warm at night). Things continued on this way for months until the night he was walking home and he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was her, a quiet smile and a teasing question. His words stuck in his throat at first, but then he was laughing, teasing, chatting. They found themselves at an all-night chippy, words and conversation flowing and when he woke the next morning, he found that her name wasn't the only thing keeping him warm. Theirs was a stormy relationship, but there was a love and desperation that kept the storm from breaking them apart. Instead it shoved them together and when she appeared on stage in front of millions, it was to her husband that she dedicated her performance.

1

It was another Friday night at Henriks for Rose Tyler. She was just finishing up her shift when the reminder of the lottery money sent her off to the basement. Within moments the room was filled with walking manikins, backing her in a corner. She was on the verge of fear when a hand grabbed hers and a voice whispered "Run." It didn't take her long to ascertain that her rescuer was a cocky man with a crazy plan who she couldn't help trusting, just a little bit. When he showed up at her mum's flat the next morning, her worst fears were confirmed - he was basically daft, but the best kind of daft and she was intrigued. 

She researched him on the Internet and with someone who claimed to be an expert and was on the verge of writing him off as completely off his rocker when he showed up again - this time with a bigger-on-the-inside blue box and a heartless attitude about her now dead boyfriend. Except Mickey wasn't dead and there was a giant blob trying to control the universe. This Doctor was a broken man and she felt her heart twist as she watched him plead his innocence, but she'd won the bronze medal in the under-sevens gymnastics and she had a plan. Her plan worked and moments later she and Mickey and the Doctor were back in the alley behind her old neighborhood and it briefly crossed her mind that she'd just referred to where she lived as something in the past. When the Doctor offered her a chance to travel with him she denied him - work and responsibilities and the boy clutching her leg all crowding in, but then the Doctor was back, all smiles and big words and she ran because she always would.


End file.
